


Hotwiring Hearts

by ProblematicPines



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Gallifrey, Inspired by Ascension Of The Cybermen, Pining, Pre-Canon, Prydonian Academy (Doctor Who), Young Doctor (Doctor Who), Young Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22871797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProblematicPines/pseuds/ProblematicPines
Summary: She was skillful when it came to hotwiring different engines; like turbo-boosters, or antigravity-propellers, or even the immensely-complicated car engine from a place called Earth.But trying to hotwire the busted warp drive of a crashed spaceship was quite the feat, even for somebody as talented as her. It didn’t help that her best friend, Koschei, was being the usual hyperactive looney he always had been. Four regenerations in and he still hadn’t even bothered to tone down his personality at all.
Relationships: Original Doctor/Original Master (Doctor Who), The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Hotwiring Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick head's up:  
> This Fic takes place when The Doctor and The Master were attending the Prydon Academy on Gallifrey when they were younger, but since the canon is pretty much nonsensical at this point, I took some creative liberties with these incarnations of the Time Lords.  
> Since this Fic was already inspired by the chemistry between The Thirteenth Doctor and Dhawan's Master, as well as one of the quotes from "Ascension Of The Cybermen", I decided to make The Doctor a woman.  
> Yeah, The Doctor has never been a woman before, but it's just FanFiction so it doesn't really mean a lot in the long run.  
> Also, The Master canonically went by the name "Koschei" when he and The Doctor were attending the Academy, so that is what I'm referring to him as throughout the story.
> 
> I do really really love my versions of these two though!

“We’re gonna get in so much trouble for this, Doc!” Koschei frantically gasped, wringing his hands in a mixture of excitement and nervousness. “We’re not even supposed to be here!” His eyes flitted around, as if worried, but then he broadly swung his arms out and cackled at the ceiling of the ship’s control deck.

“AND I LOVE IT!” he cried.

The Doctor rolled her eyes, huffing. Her fingers, lithe and dark with a mixture of melanin and oil, nimbly navigated around the complex circuit board of tangled wires, flashing lights and beeping buttons.

She was skillful when it came to hotwiring different engines; like turbo-boosters, or antigravity-propellers, or even the immensely-complicated car engine from a place called Earth.

But trying to hotwire the busted warp drive of a crashed spaceship was quite the feat, even for somebody as talented as her. It didn’t help that her best friend, Koschei, was being the usual hyperactive looney he always had been. Four regenerations and he still hadn’t even bothered to tone down his personality at all.

“You don’t need to remind me every two minutes,” she remarked. “Besides, who’s gonna notice two randos in the middle of the night? I certainly wouldn’t.”

The Doctor whipped her head round, glaring up at the taller boy.

“An’ keep your voice down! We’re only gonna get found if you don’t shut yer trap!”

Koschei shook his head, a broad grin on his face. “Can’t!” he exclaimed, bouncing from foot to foot in glee. “I just wanna get this bad boy up and running so we can go for a joyride!”

The Doctor turned her attention back to the warp drive. It was humming dully, a faint blue light pulsing gently in and out, like it was a sleeping beast trying to awaken from its slumber. But no matter how many wires The Doctor rearranged in a vain attempt to sort out the circuitry, it remained dormant.

Frustrated, she got to her feet from where she’d been squatting on her haunches on the cold steel floor. She straightened her back with a soft crack, and let out a sigh of exertion. “By stars, I need to exercise more,” she huffed.

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Koschei agreed with a coy grin. A playful punch to his arm resulted in a genuine chuckle.

The Doctor peered down at herself; her Prydon Academy uniform was totally dishevelled, having been streaked with oil from the crashed ship. Her crimson robes were a mess, her headdress long since abandoned in the field that the spaceship crash-landed in. Overall, The Doctor barely looked the part of a student in the most prestigious school on Gallery.

The Master, however, had avoided all the dirty work. He looked spotless and clean under the pulsing blue light of the control deck, his dark brown hair still messy and windswept from their frantic run from the Academy to the field.

The two of them had been sitting in the courtyard outside of the Academy, when Koschei had pointed out a blazing orange light in the dark red sky above them. The Doctor had initially waved it off as a passing comet, but when the light had grown closer and closer with a distant roar of engines (that were clearly on fire), Koschei had taken the initiative by grabbing The Doctor by her sleeve and hauling her towards it.

What they now knew was a lone spacecraft had plummeted into the ground with a deafening crash, leaving behind a vast, smoking impact crater in the middle of one of the sprawling orange fields outside of the Academy.

And that’s where they were now; Koschei had giddily begged The Doctor to hardwire the spaceship back to functionality so that they could go on a quick joyride. She had been opposed to the idea at first, since their reputation with the Professors at the Academy already wasn’t the cleanest, but after enough begging and pestering from The Master, she’d relented.

“When we get this up ‘n runnin’, you’d better not try and drag me into anythin’ else for a while,” The Doctor hissed, wiping her hands down on the front of her robes. What’s a bit more dirt to add to the already filthy uniform? Koschei held up his right hand and drew lines across his chest.

“Cross my hearts and hope to die,” he uttered solemnly, but his serious composure only lasted a moment or two before he was giddy again.

“Now, come on! Somebody else is gonna notice the ship soon!”

“Stop acting like a kid,” The Doctor chastised, running her hands through her shaggy mane of pure-white hair. “You’re sixty-eight years old, not twenty-five.”

“And lookin’ good on it!” Koschei gleefully chirped, smoothing back his hair with his hand.

The Doctor rolled her eyes again, then squinted down at the warp drive. It was still humming and pulsing, yet no brighter or louder than before. She thoughtfully rubbed at her chin, running hundreds of possible resolutions through her head. But none of them really seemed to work out.

“Maybe if we channel some of the ship’s energy used to power non-vital systems, we could jumpstart the warp drive so that we can finally get mo-”

Before The Doctor could even finish her sentence, Koschei hopped down onto the floor beside the warp drive, drew his lanky leg back, and gave it the hardest, loudest kick The Doctor had ever heard.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” The Doctor hollered, grabbing at her schoolmate’s uniform and hauling him back.

“You were taking too long!” Koschei protested, and just when The Doctor drew back her hand to slap him across his freckled face, the floor beneath them lurched with sudden speed. It was so abrupt that it threw the two of them to the floor, which they landed on with sharp cries of shock. The warp drive, previously dull, was now flaring electric blue, and the dull hum had increased to a shrill, provocative roar that surged through the ship like wildfire.

Koschei leaped to his feet, ecstatically clapping his hands and hopping from one foot to the other.

“It’s working, it’s working!” he rejoiced. The Doctor held out a hand for him to take in order to help her up, but he was too busy dance-running towards the large control panel on the other side of the room.

The whole ship was thrumming with energy now, and the floor rattled loudly as the engines surged to life with a roar. The Doctor clambered to her feet, and ran over to be by Koschei’s sides as he maneuvered his way nimbly around the intricate network of controls on the panel. She clung to her schoolmate as the floor shook, threatening to knock her over again. She wrapped her arms around his torso, and even though she was just barely shorter than him, she felt so much smaller now that the ship was heaving to life.

“You ready to go on the joyride of your life?” Koschei yelled, trying to be heard over the deafening roar of the ship’s warp drive.

“No!” The Doctor called back, her white hair billowing all around her as she felt the ship rising from the smoking crater it had landed in. She felt weightless as the ship hovered higher and higher, and the roar of the engines steadied into a rhythmic rumble beneath the floor of the control deck.

“GOOD!” Koschei’s reply was full of excitement, whereas The Doctor was certain she would be ejected from the ship at any moment and land in the field of orange grass.

Koschei pushed forward on the control panel, and when he did, the ship blasted through the sky at breakneck speed. It took all The Doctor’s effort to cling to him, and the two of them careened through the air in their hotwired ship; Koschei hollering with gleeful laughter, The Doctor screaming with a mixture of fear and excitement.

Despite the lack of any windows in the control deck, Koschei knew where he was going. At least, The Doctor hoped he knew where he was going. They hadn’t crashed, at least. The ship continued blasting through the sky at speeds The Doctor didn’t even know were possible, and all the while she remained clinging to her best friend for dear life.

She’d only regenerated once before, and she didn't fancy reinventing herself any time soon.

Or _him_ self, for that matter.

“Can you slow down a bit?” The Doctor pleaded, digging in her feet to stop herself from sliding. But Koschei either didn’t hear her request or completely ignored it; instead, he decided to spin the ship in a cartwheel that almost sent the two of them flying. The Doctor clung on tighter, burying her face in the crook of her friend’s neck and squealing with terrified delight.

Koschei smelled like silver pine, like the towering ones just outside of his estate.

She liked it.

It was a metallic yet natural kind of smell, almost like petrichor. It dominated all other sensations, and The Doctor found her racing hearts slow comfortably after a few deep inhales of the comforting scent. 

Soon, she was calm enough to spread her feet to evenly distribute her weight and stand up straighter. Her white hair made her appear taller than her friend, but she was comforted by his bigger frame as they continued spinning mindlessly through the Gallifreyan sky. She squared her jaw, and gave Koschei one last squeeze before letting go of his torso.

“You want me to go faster?” Koschei inquired, a dazzled look on his face.

Yup, he’d definitely ignored her last request.

The Doctor bit her lip, and nodded. 

“Go for it.”

\--

After hours of dizzyingly, nauseatingly, heart-poundingly fast travel through the sky, The Doctor had convinced her friend to finally land the ship so that they could get out and see how far away they were from the Citadel. That, and also because she threatened to spew up her lunch all over his immaculate uniform.

The ship lurched to a sudden disorientating halt, and The Doctor let go of her friend as she tried to keep her own balance. She was a bit unsteady on her feet and her hearts were still racing, but she doubted it was just because of how fast the ship was travelling.

The entry hatch they’d shimmied through to get into the ship in the first place slid open with a hiss, and the two Time Lords climbed out. They stood atop the spaceship, which Koschei had responsibly parked on a flat plateau of rock and a few patches of long red grass. A rarity, for him.

The Doctor and Koschei marveled at the sight before them.

There was a sprawling expanse of jagged mountains that loomed up to the blood-red sky, which was already twinkling with hundreds upon thousands of stars. It was approaching nightfall, as one of the suns had already dipped below the horizon. The jagged mountains partially obscured a brilliant shining glow in the distance.

“We’re a really long way from the Citadel,” The Doctor remarked, already dreading the days-long walk back to the domed city they’d emerged from.

“Not far enough if you’d ask me,” Koschei remarked in an oddly forlorn tone.

The Doctor quizzically glanced at her best friend, but he didn’t really look like he was going to explain himself, even if she pushed the issue, so she just let it go.

She glanced around, inspecting the area a little more. She’d never been so far away from the Citadel before, not even with her mother and father when they travelled to Arcadia. Well, back when her father was her mother and her mother was her father.

Regenerations were tricky, and The Doctor had experienced that firsthand.

Regardless, she found herself not wanting to go back so soon. It was a rare moment for her to observe the craggy mountains outside of the enclosed glass dome of the Citadel, and it was an experience she didn’t want to end so soon. She wanted to cherish every moment she spent out there with Koschei, underneath the red sky with all its stars twinkling down at them.

“Do you wanna stay out here for a while longer?” The Doctor asked Koschei.

He nodded vigorously, any trace of his previous forlorn comment totally gone.

“I thought you’d never ask, Doc!”

The Doctor rolled her eyes at the dumb-sounding nickname, before hopping down from the top of the spaceship onto the plateau. A thin layer of red sand skated silently across the rock, as the cooling wind whistled through the air, blowing The Doctor’s mane behind her ears and causing her oil-streaked robes to flap around her ankles.

So many tiny details that The Doctor would usually consider insignificant, suddenly taking on a sharp accuracy that added so much to the memory she was sure to treasure of this fleeting moment in her life.

Walking some distance away from the spaceship, The Doctor kicked loose red pebbles across the ground, and ran her brown fingers through the long red grass that swayed in the breeze. Peering over at her best friend, The Doctor took note of how much she stood out in this landscape. In a painting of sandy reds, burnt oranges, golden yellows and the rich, mahogany brown of her own skin, her white hair almost seemed like a beacon in the mountains. Her and Koschei’s uniforms were dark red too, and the scattering of brown freckles across Koschei’s face made him blend in with the environment. It made him seem like a part of the painting, like he belonged there.

The Doctor seemed totally incongruent in comparison.

But even though it was a dissociative feeling, it wasn’t a totally unpleasant one. If anything, it just made The Doctor want to be out here all the more.

To be a stranger in places where she didn’t belong, it filled her with an urge to go out there among the stars, to keep on chasing that feeling for as long as it would last.

With Koschei by her side.

Glancing over at her friend, she marveled at him in the orange light of the second setting sun. His brown hair was ruffled by the wind, and his freckles accentuated the dimples in his cheeks and the rich brown of his eyes, which were squinted against the whistling wind and the glare of the blazing sun.

When Koschei had regenerated into this new look a few months ago, The Doctor hadn’t really thought much about how he looked. He was the same Koschei as before, even if his hair was shorter and his skin was fairer. He was still her best friend that she’d known all her life, even if he didn’t always look the same. But that kind of came with the territory when you were a Time Lord; change was just something you would have to live with.

But in all those months since Koschei had regenerated, The Doctor hadn’t put that much thought into all the little intricacies that composed her friend. 

His laugh was louder, his eyes blinked a lot more feverently than before. His attitude was a lot cockier and more of a smartass than he had been before. He smelled like silver pine, and his freckles were so abundant on his face that The Doctor would sometimes stare at it for hours, mapping out as many constellations as she could in them.

But there was something else.

The Doctor could feel her hearts beginning to race again, and her palms were getting sweatier. She knew that she was off the ship, but it still felt like she was going to sent flying again.

She didn’t know what this feeling was, but it was as strong and as powerful as her burning desire to just leave and travel amongst the stars, looking for more places to discover and see if she belonged there or not.

Koschei looked over at her, and smiled.

“You okay, Doc?”

That stupid nickname again. But she didn’t mind it.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

The Doctor smiled back.

**Author's Note:**

> After yet another really really long hiatus from writing FanFiction, I'm back with a brand new Fic! I'm not gonna lie and say that I'm gonna try and be more active, since I don't know what's in store for me.  
> But I am gonna write when I can and post when I have the energy to.
> 
> Thank you for reading my FanFic! I really appreciate it! I'll also really appreciate comments and kudos, as they give me motivation to keep on writing for you guys!


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